Challenges aplenty to candidates in DuPage County

All campaign drama doesn't happen on Election Day.

At least five governmental entities are holding electoral board hearings next week to determine whether nearly 20 candidates will be excised from the April 7 ballots. Another candidate is already gone after county election officials discovered Friday she doesn't live in the school district she wants to help lead. Then, there are the 22 people who showed up at the election commission offices in Wheaton during the past week to declare themselves write-in candidates, including nine for a school board race.

College of DuPage officials have to handle the largest glut of objections with seven challenges. They are empaneling two electoral boards to hear the objections beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday. While legal, it's rare that two separate electoral boards are created to settle objections.

Five of the 10 Carol Stream Library trustee candidates also are being challenged. Three of the eight Winfield village trustee candidates face objections. Two Democratic candidates for Wayne Township trustee seats are being challenged in a race that also features Republican incumbents running as independents. And finally there's Virginia Carlson, an incumbent in a five-way race for four seats on the Lombard Library Board, but the only one being challenged.

It's the DuPage County Election Commission objecting to Wood Dale Elementary District 7 candidate Kajanda Love's candidacy. Election commission workers discovered Love doesn't live within the boundaries of the school district when they made a routine check on candidates' addresses after ballots were submitted Thursday. Love's departure only gives voters one less option, as they'll still have to decide between six people for four seats.

Voters in Glenbard High School District 87 can expect to receive countless lessons on how to cast a ballot with write-in votes. After learning that only two people signed up to run for four seats on the massive district's school board, nine people signed up to run the more difficult write-in campaigns.